Saturday

Aug 27, 2011 at 10:47 PM

With Texas A&M having one foot out the door toward joining the Southeastern Conference, the rest of the Big 12 Conference is just as determined to minimize the impact of the Aggies leaving, Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance said Saturday.

Echoing remarks made this earlier month by Tech President Guy Bailey, Hance said the league is going to aggressively pursue one to three schools for expansion.

"The presidents are all working on that," Hance said. "Everyone in athletics, all the remaining schools are working on that. They feel like there's a chance that whoever we get will be just as big, if not a bigger story than the Aggies' leaving. That's where we are."

When A&M might join the SEC remains unclear, but the university has asked the Big 12 to spell out the steps necessary for withdrawal.

Big 12 presidents met Saturday by conference call to discuss the parameters of A&M's departure and what steps to take afterward.

Orangebloods.com, an Austin-based affiliate of the Rivals.com network, reported Saturday the presidents discussed adding three schools rather than just a replacement for A&M. Citing unnamed sources, it reported Notre Dame could be targeted in the event of a three-team expansion, as well as some combination of Arkansas, Pittsburgh and Brigham Young. The Orangebloods.com sources said Pittsburgh might be a possibility only in tandem with Notre Dame and in case Arkansas weren't interested.

If Arkansas, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame could not be added, Orangebloods.com quoted its unnamed sources saying BYU might be the popular choice to replace A&M if the league stays at 10.

Hance confirmed he heard Pittsburgh mentioned as an expansion possibility last week.

He said he's not opposed to adding schools from the Midwest and East, because they could restore some of the geography the Big 12 lost with the departures in the past year of Nebraska and Colorado. In shrinking to 10 schools, the Big 12 eliminated the North and South divisions used since its inception in 1996.

"If you added Pitt, Louisville, Notre Dame, it would be easy to have a northern division," Hance said. "Those would be three great ones. You look at what they bring in football and basketball and the Olympic sports, it'd be big."

He said he doesn't know the odds of landing those three schools.

"I think everything's in such a state of flux," he said, "the only certain thing right now is uncertainty. There's so much going on."

Notre Dame has long been an independent in football and has its own television contract with NBC. Having a north division would alleviate Notre Dame travel issues, Hance said, and "they also probably would be able to work out their issues on their NBC alliance that they have now."

"I think if we're going to be inviting someone to join, we want to look at the best possible schools," he said. "I do think if three were added, a Texas school would have a chance. I think if they only add one, a Texas school does not have a chance."

He said he thinks Houston and TCU are the two Texas schools most likely to be looked at.

Since the possibility of Tech being part of a package of schools shipping out to the Pac-12 Conference fell through last year, some Red Raiders fans have expressed fear of being left out of a major conference in the next round of realignment.

Hance said keeping Tech in one of the best conferences has "been a priority of mine for the last five years."

He said he has no doubt that Tech is "one of the top 25 programs in America."

"There's no guarantees in life," he said, "but I feel confident if you look at just the merits - the size of our stadium, the size of our facilities, that only three teams have been bowl eligible more than we have in the last 19, 20 years. So we've got credibility. We just need to make sure that perception's out there as much as the reality is.

"There's a lot of moving parts on this. No one is more involved than the administration leadership at Texas Tech and the board. This is a big issue, and we're staying on top of it and it changes from day to day."

To comment on this story:

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